CSR a requirement, not an option.

Green travel tips for memorial weekend. Traveling green isn’t limited to vacationers booking eco-lodge stays, safaris, and outdoor adventure tours. Anyone going anywhere can travel with less impact on the environment, whether by plane, train, or automobile. If you’re planning to hit the road (or head to the airport) this Memorial Day weekend, check out Huffington Post‘s tips for vacationing green-style.

Restaurant experiences impact of social media. While many corporations hire communications experts to respond to every tweet, Facebook message and online review, the wave of digital feedback can be especially challenging for small businesses with small staffs, digital consultants said. For one thing, there is so much online content to wade through. Find out more on ABCNews.

How to enhance your green packaging efforts…Sustainable packaging encompasses multiple initiatives, including producing effective solutions with minimum resources, protecting the product, transport efficiency and effective end of life management.  What’s encouraging is that each of the aforementioned can be accomplished one step at a time. See what those steps are on Environmental Leader.

Here are some of the trends we saw on the floor this year at the 2013 NRA Show:

Healthier foods for kids. Providing healthier foods for families — especially children — has become a top priority for many restaurants. This year, the show featured a Healthier Kids Fare pavilion, which highlighted products and resources focused on nutrition just for kids.

• Restaurants are going mobile. With all the hype surrounding social media and smartphones, it’s no surprise that the restaurant industry has leveraged new technologies to engage their customers. Restaurant and dining apps like Rockbot and Punchh made appearances at the NRA show and showcased ways to engage and implement loyalty programs and grow your customer base.
• More desserts for the summer time. There’s only one treat we love during the summer time and the NRA show this year showcased plenty of options from frozen yogurt to soft serve ice cream.  One favorite: A Passion Fruit slushy with Yogurt Popping Pearls.

Also at the NRA Show this year, SCA, the makers of the Tork brand of away‐from‐home paper products, celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Xpressnap family with a cake shaped like the Tork Xpressnap Signature Stand model. SCA also announced the winner of its $25,000 “Win Win” promotion and the five runners-up.

Want more from the 2013 NRA show? Check out these videos.

Boulder Fleets to Drive on Used Cooking Oil: This is the kind of biodiesel that makes sense to us – waste cooking oil, not soybean or other virgin oil made from plants. Bio Plant Technologies and GHP Biodiesel USA are opening a small biodiesel plant in Boulder, Colorado that can process 11.5 million gallons of used cooking oil into fuel. Read more about it at Sustainable Business.

Recycled carpet: According to statistics, about five billion pounds of discarded carpet goes to landfills each year. In order to help put a dent in this wasteful problem, Brooklyn-based designer Igor Siddiqui of ISSSStudio has an idea to put carpet remnants to good use: by making more one-of-a-kind carpets out of irregularly shaped offcuts. Watch the video at Tree Hugger.

Putting the customer in context: IBM’s Smarter Commerce Global Summit kicked off this week in Nashville and runs through tomorrow. The summit provides expert insights on supply chain, optimizing inventory, personalizing promotions, micro-target marketing, and more. Direct Marketing News says the focus of Day 1 was all about putting the customer in context. For more details go to DMNews.com.

Moderate foodservice growth expected in 2014: Foodservice research firm Technomic has released its initial 2014 Foodservice Industry Forecast, estimating nominal growth for next year at 4.1 percent. The findings also included slightly lower-than-expected sales growth for the industry in early 2013, from a 3.9-percent increase reported in January to 3.8 percent reported this week. For more on the report findings, go to Nation’s Restaurant News.

Restaurant Marketing Ideas for June:

Restaurants turn to mobile apps for marketing: David Stidham, vice president of marketing for Prairie du Sac, Wis.-based Culver’s, called all the new marketing capabilities and solutions on display at the NRA Show’s Technology Pavilion “almost overwhelming,” but he still planned to stifle his amazement for two days and search for more new platforms. For more from the NRA show, go to Nation’s Restaurant News.

Color-Coded Stickers Help Reduce GHG Emissions: Color-coding systems can help facilities curb greenhouse gas emissions, reduce water and energy use, and cut operating costs, reports Cleaning and Maintenance Management. In an article for the magazine, Sustainability Tool CEO Stephen Ashkin says placing small, inconspicuous colored dots on a variety of electricity-hungry equipment and sources that use water can guide custodial staff, usually the last ones to leave a building, on when to turn off different equipment, enabling significant energy and water savings. Learn more about the system at Environmental Leader.

Samsung Smartphone First to Be Certified Sustainable: Samsung is the first to achieve the new international smartphone certification, which rates the devices on environmental design and socially responsible manufacturing. Its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone received certification from TCO Development, which launched the rating system last month. Sustainable Business has the story.

Take a note from Chicago’s Next restaurant or New York’s Per Se restaurant, both of which made the list of Zagat’s top restaurants for service in 25 cities. Zagat says Next has “flawless” staffers, rated No. 1 for service in Chicago. May 21 is National Waiters and Waitress Day and besides thanking them for their hard work, here are five easy ways to help motivate wait staff to improve their customer service.

1. Invest in training. It’s always easier to learn something right the first time than having to teach an old dog new tricks. By investing the time, the staff will invest the extra effort for you. A well-trained staff is more confident, professional, well-informed and equipped with the tools necessary to handle anything a customer throws at them.

2. Pep talks. Start each shift with a meeting to set goals and establish a positive attitude. Everything works more smoothly if staff members work together so make sure there is a sense of teamwork.

3. Create friendly competition. A lot of restaurants have monthly, weekly or even daily competitions that offer a monetary reward. It’s like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Something as simple as “whoever sells the most desserts tonight gets a free dinner,” doesn’t create too much of a burden on the restaurant but provides the staff with an incentive to reach a certain goal.

4. Lead by example. Everyone will be looking to the owner and/or manager for ways to improve customer service. If you practice what you preach, you gain trust and respect. Being on hand to support the staff when needed shows them you are engaged and care about their work.

5. Positive reinforcement. Everybody loves a compliment; it’s one of the best motivators. Praise those who go above and beyond to help a customer and mention what that person did to the team at the next meeting. Employees will realize you are always watching and they will want to be noticed too.

Subway to add 3,000 locations in 2013.

Green buildings awe worldwide. We’re excited about Taschen’s “100 Contemporary Green Buildings,” a survey of eco-friendly architecture at the cutting edge of design and environmental awareness. Gathered from around the globe, the following selection of green buildings range from permanent camping grounds to schools. See the designs on The Huffington Post.

High tourism expected for the summer. The U.S. travel industry is poised for one the strongest summers in history as demand soars and travelers reinvest in their vacation plans, said top travel executives from Best Western International and the U. S. Travel Association. Check out Hospitality.net for more.

Your options for takeout orders just doubled. Two leaders in restaurant food delivery, Seamless and GrubHub, announced that they will merge on Monday. Customers from more than 500 cities will be able to order from 20,000 local restaurants through the joint company. For more, visit CNN.

Starbucks pushes envelope in mobile marketing

Starting a mobile program? Bring cash: It seems like there might be a bit of a mismatch between what companies want to do with mobile and what they’re actually doing. Or, to put a finer point on it, what they’re capable of doing right now. And mostly, it seems to be a matter of cash. According to Jeffrey Hammond, VP and principal analyst at Forrester, speaking at Adobe’s Digital Publishing Summit in NYC, if you’re spending less than about $2 million on effecting your multichannel mobile strategy, you might not be doling out enough to create the kind of immersive, engaging experiences consumers have come to expect. Some Fortune 500 companies and leaders in the space are spending as much as $50 million on mobile. (Gulp.) Read more at Direct Marketing News

Where to eat in Chicago for NRA weekend: If you’re visiting the Windy City for the National Restaurant Association Show – starting May 18 – here are seven top restaurants to try, according to Restaurant Hospitality. A favorite of this blog curator: BellyQ

The 3 things Green Tech Firms can learn from the Smartphone Wars: As the smartphone wars continue in courts and before government entities throughout the U.S. — indeed, throughout the developed world — what lessons can green technology companies learn from this global battle over ideas, markets and intellectual property? Find out at Greenbiz.com

For healthcare environments, is average good enough? With discrepancies noted between scores for patient safety protocols and quality of the environment, healthcare designers shouldn’t be satisfied with only a passing grade. A new website is available to help people in California compare insurance providers and hospitals, launched by the State of California Office of the Patient Advocate. Read more at Healthcare Design.

Breakfast sandwiches rise in popularity. A new report from Technomic Inc.’s MenuMonitor service supported the notion gleaned from several new-product introductions and tests at major quick-service chains that breakfast sandwiches continue to rise in popularity. Nation’s Restaurant News has the story.

A desk that keeps on moving. New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean has spent years trying to find the right desk chair. She considered a pricy museum-worthy chair, a kneeling chair and a yoga ball before ditching the seat altogether for a treadmill desk — and discovering the health benefits of moving at work. For more on the story, head to NPR.

Restaurant sales see improvement. The restaurant industry saw relatively strong sales and traffic in April driven by solid performances across all segments and strengthening both operator and consumer confidence, according to the latest NRN-MillerPulse survey. See more on the results at Nation’s Restaurant News. 

According to an analysis by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, restaurants that provided more low-calorie options had an increase of 5.5 percent in same-store sales, an 11 percent increase in customers, and a 9 percent jump in food and beverage servings.  Chains that offered fewer lower-calorie menu items had a much different outcome, with a 5.5 percent decline in same-store sales, 15 percent drop in customers, and 16 percent decrease in total servings.

During the five-year period menu items were studied, sales of low-calorie menu items increased by 472 million dollar orders, while servings of high-calorie foods dropped by 1.3 billion.  The study monitored 21 popular restaurant chains in the United States from 2006 through 2011.  The restaurants ranged from fast food chains such as McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s to sit-down restaurants including Panera Bread, Olive Garden, and Outback Steakhouse.

 Panera Bread, for example, has revamped its menu to include healthier options.  It switched to low-fat mayonnaise, only add condiments to sandwiches per customer request, and they recently announced a “hidden menu” which includes low-carb options.  The chain had a 5 percent increase in same-store sales in the fourth quarter of 2012.

Healthier eating is clearly becoming a trend.  In another study from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, American children consumed fewer calories in 2012 than 10 years ago.  A big surprise was a decline in carbohydrate consumption, which many think sugar and soda are the main factors in childhood obesity.

It’s the perfect time to help the obesity crisis and your restaurant business.  Consumers are realizing the benefits to eating better and are paying for healthier choices.  The restaurants that recognize this are reaping the benefits.

Olivia Weyer is a dietetic intern at the Niehoff School of Nursing, Loyola University Chicago

The Tork Daily Reader brings you key stories in sustainability, foodservice, healthcare and hygiene from across the Web.

Square takes a stand. Square, the company making commerce easy for everyone, today announced Square Stand, beautiful new hardware for brick and mortar businesses that turns an iPad into a complete point of sale. With local businesses increasingly tearing out their old point of sale systems to run Square Register, Square Stand gives merchants a remarkable new way to manage and grow their business, all for the price of a cash register. Learn more at RestaurantNews.com.

London to be fueled by fat. In 2015, East London will be home to a new type of power plant that uses a unique renewable energy source — discarded fat. Yes, fat. Everyday, fat, oil and grease (FOG is the acronym being used) build up in the city’s sewer system, causing blockages or “fatbergs.” City workers must remove the build-up to keep the system running smoothly, but now the fat will be used to power the Beckton sewage works, a nearby desalination plant and even be fed to the grid. The plant will contribute enough electricity to power 39,000 homes. For details go to TreeHugger.com.

Sustainability leaders emerge. Each year, GlobeScan’s Sustainability Leaders survey asks experts to name a company they regard as a leader in sustainability. As Joel Makower noted recently, one company above all others — Unilever — has emerged as the sustainability champion par excellence in recent years, thanks to its highly ambitious Sustainable Living Plan. And this year, more than one in four experts mention the company is stretching its lead over the competition. For more on the survey results, go to GreenBiz.com.

Restaurants conquer recession. Americans seem to be fed up with frugality. As the recession ever so slowly recedes, an increasing number of Americans say they are less frugal than they were a few years ago. At the same time, sales at restaurants are at an all-time high and at least one survey says consumers expect to spend more eating out as soon as their pocketbooks allow. Sales at eating and drinking places in April reached $45.9 billion, a $200 million seasonally-adjusted increase from the previous high in December 2012, according to preliminary figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. To read the full-length story, click on NBCNews.com.